Academy for the Light
by KanniaTokai
Summary: Kasey Canary, thirteen year old Assassin is on a mission when he comes face to face with a Hunter. The event shakes the teen to the core while changes come from the higher ups. With the guarantee of a new partner Kasey is dreading if the rookie assassin will meet his standards.


"Canary, this is fox. What is your status?"  
"This is Canary, target is dead. Mission failed." An irritated voice responded over the radio. The orange haired teen stood in the middle of a mansion entry way standing over the bodies of its owners. Looking down at the floor that he stood on his white boots were stained with the blood that had not been soaked up by the large rug that decorated the light wood floors. He had been charged with killing the two aristocrats that lay at his feet. Unfortunately, he had not been the one to kill them he had been too late. Crouching down at to look at the older male and who he assumed to be his wife he tilted his head to the side. Examining the female body that was closer to him he could see deep wounds around the throat. _Sloppy work for a challenger… _the teen thought before he was interrupted by the voice in his ear..  
"Cause?" the male voice stated.  
"Looks like some sort of blade, short… they were ambushed walking through the main doors. Damn! We needed that information." The teen growled his acid green eyes glaring down at the corpses as if he could blame the dead for his misfortune. In truth he could and he would. If they hadn't gone out for dinner tonight the teen would have been the one to kill them. He would have given them a quick death, painless even, and the wife wouldn't have had to suffer the same fate if she had known nothing of her husband's work.  
"Search the office for any information and return to the nest."  
"Fine… but warn the other teams… this is the fourth mission failed to some jackass stealing our kills." He snapped pulling the headphone out of his ear and shoving it into the front pocket of his coat. When he worked he never liked having to hear his handler yelling in his ear over the stupid stunts that he would pull.

Making his way upstairs the teen made quick work of locating the office after studying the blueprints for months. He knew this damned house better than the owners and his mission was ruined by some unknown variable killing all of his organizations target's before they could. "This could prove troublesome… especially when we start taking on the bodyguard contract we are trying to land." He muttered to himself. Walking into the office the teen stopped seeing a shadowed figure standing over the desk flipping through documents.

At the sound of the teen entering the figure looked up his crimson eyes locking on him. His stomach did a summersault causing bile to creep its way up his throat. He had been an assassin for two years now… he had been in situations like this before. But nothing prepared him for coming face to face with a hunterHunter. "Sh-Shit!" he said rReaching behind his back for the pistol that rested in a holster at the middle of his waist, but he was to slow to defend himself. He gagged as he found himself slammed against the door frame his feet off the ground. The door frameedge of the wood digging into his spine, as he tried to get air into his lungs.

"Now isn't this cute… I've never run into an assassin before… but I've heard that they are quite delicious. Too bad that you're so small… you only qualify as an after dinner mint." A graveled voice said close to the teens face.  
The teensteen's eyes widened at the stench of blood and death that emitted from the creature holding him. Struggling to get some sort of leverage to aid in his escape his vision began to swim from lack of oxygen. _I'm not going to die, not at the hands of this nasty hunter!_ The teen thought digging the heel of his boot into the door frame giving him the pivot point to push his body forward. Grabbing onto the arm that held his throat the teen put all his strength into pushing forward away from the wood that bit into his spine. The hunter was surprised by the teen's strength and stumbled off balance.

Rolling onto the ground the teen choked for air as he was able to breathe. Scrambling to his feet he dashed for the window. The hunter roared in anger as his meal tried to flee. Passing the desk the teen grabbed whatever papers were on top of the desk andAs soon as he reached the desk the teen dove through the second floor window. He had fallen from higher places in his training, but he didn't know what type of hunter was after him. Rolling across the front lawn the teen jumped to his feet running for the front gate. He could hear the snarls from the creature far behind him. Digging into his pocket for his headphone he yelled into the microphone. "Canary to nest! Hunter at location. I repeat Hunter at location! I know one of you fuckers is nearby! Get your ass over here now!" the teen yelled looking back to see the hunter chasing after him, in the lights of the house he could see the hunter had dark gray, scaled skin with his glowing red eyes. If it weren't for the skin and the shark teeth the monster could pass for human. Turning his attention forward he jumped up starting to scale the iron fence that had surrounded the estate. Once high enough to see over the hedge the teen could see the black van with red markings speeding down the road towards his location.

All he had to do was get to the street and he would be home free. Reaching for the top bar of the fence he almost smiled with the glimmer of safety in sight but he was jerked down by his ankle. Gripping tightly to the bars he looked down at the hunter.  
"Little Assassin, did you thing think you would get away that easily." It snarled before pulling one more time, a yelp escaped the teens mouth as he was flung like a rag doll to the freshly cut grass. Rolling onto his back he looked up at the monster that stood over him. In a last ditch effort the teen ripped his gun from its holster and fired off a shot. The bullet hit the hunter in the forehead, but the hunter lunged not noticing the metal projectile that had lodged into his skull.  
The bullet hit the Hunter between the eyes, but it wasn't enough to deter the monster from his meal as it lunged for the boy.

The teen cried out as sharp teeth found his shoulder digging into the flesh. The screech of tires covered by the boy's scream as the black and red van drove through the fence the front of the vehicle hitting the hunter. The teeth ripped from the boys flesh as the impact sent the monster flying. The teen was shaking as he tried to sit up feeling the warmth of his blood soak into the white shirt and coat that he wore. Two men jumped from the van one aiming his weapon on the monster as it laid on the ground unmovingit's movement's contorted as the sound of broken bones started to snap back into place. The other man ran to the teen. "Kasey!" the male's voice yelled as he started to get the teen up on his feetteen into a sitting position.

Kasey rolled his head to look at the man that was coming to his aidat his side, it was his old mentor and partner, but as he called out Kasey's mind was starting to fog over. He had read that some low level hunters contained paralytic toxins in their fangs. He could hear Jason yelling but he couldn't understand what he was saying. The next thing he remembered was the burning pain that shot through his body and then darkness.

**~!~**

"_Kasey, you need to remember that you are not strong enough yet to take on a hunter… you're still thirteen… Don't rush things." Jason said as the Kasey cleaned his pistol.  
"Pshh, come on how scary can hunters be?" Kasey said as he reached for the cleaning oil.  
"Hunters are human bodies that are taken over by demon entities. It's impossible to gauge what level they are. Hell a S class Hunter can possess a human and be at full strength within a week. You're puny little pistol won't even phase them." The older teen explained narrowing his eyes at Kasey. "It's why they created a separate division for dealing with them."  
"Well I'm going to be part of that division, and to do that I need to kill a Hunter." Kasey said bluntly.  
"I've never seen a hunter, and I bet that the first time you see one you'll puke." Jason said seriously.  
"Fat chance." Kasey laughed throwing a cotton ball at him._

_The dream shifted to the night where Kasey saw a hunter for the first time, the office was covered in blood and debris as the stench of decay enveloped Kasey's world. But instead of his target's lying dead at its feet, it was his mentor and best friend Jason, along with his classmates. The monster laughed as it held a blond boy in his grasp. The boy was small like himself with blond hair, but his eyes were a pure sapphire blue color that entranced Kasey. He could see the boy calling out to Kasey, but his cries were muted. Kasey didn't know why he felt a connection to the boy, but he was scared for what was about to happen. Kasey couldn't move, couldn't speak. That was Untiluntil the monster bit into the boy's neck blood spilling down to the mound of bodies. The sight of the limp boy bleeding in the claws of the Hunter caused the teen to snap. "NANA!" he screamed his throat feeling raw as if had been screaming for hours. _

_causing Kasey to scream out._

Kasey jerked awake into a sitting position. His breathing was rapid and labored as he stared down at the crisp white blanket that laidlay over his legs. The pillows that had once been on the bed were tossed onto the floor. Covered in a cold sweat Kasey pressed his hand to his forehead trying to reason with his mind that what he had seen was only a dream and not fact. Soon the only thing left of the hellish dream was the sapphire eyes of the boy that had caused Kasey to go into a fit. He didn't even know the boy in his dream, and under any other circumstance he would have cared. wouldn't have cared.

But something bothered the teen, the feeling of foreboding that lingered in his mind. Running his hand through his sweat dampened hair he took a few calming breathes.

"Look who's awake." A familiar voice said from the doorway. Looking up Kasey locked eyes with Jason, another real to solidify that the dream was indeed over. Kasey smirked up at the sixteen year old assassin with dark brown hair. Acid green eyes met hazel as the older teen sat on the bed next to Kasey's feet. "Told ya you would barf seeing your first Hunter."

Kasey blushed, narrowing his eyes at his friend. "I didn't barf! " he snapped crossing his arms wincing as the bandages were shifted on his wound, he glanced down at his shoulder seeing the bandages wrapped around his neck over his shoulder.  
"The thing got ya pretty good Kase… take it easy." Jason said his eyes softening with worry. "He clipped you're jugular, if we hadn't been your tail you would have been demon food…"  
"I get it.. I fucked up."  
"No... You followed the book on that this one. There had been no reports of Hunters in the area so Mother-Hen thought it would be an good startereasy mission for you…" Jason said reaching over to make Kasey look up at his face. "But its event's like this that cause action."  
"What do you mean, 'cause action.'" Kasey said narrowing his eyes.  
"Well since you have yet to unlock any assassin potential… you're being assigned a partner… A rookie..." Jason explained..  
"WHAT!? They can't do this! I'm one of the top students; I can't be in charge of babysitting a rookie!" Kasey said as he started to get up trying to find his clothes..  
"It's not up to you."  
"If I'm going to be put with a partner I want it to be you, we work well together!" Kasey snapped finding his jeans..  
"I know but you know that I have a partner, once you reach our level you get placed with someone the same age." Jason said trying to stop the teen from moving by pushing him back onto the bed. "And you have the advantage of taking this rookie and keeping him until you retire, you skipped grade so the rookie will be the same age as you."  
As Kasey tried to get back up off the bed he met only to meet the wall of muscle that was Jason. It was a blur but the teen soon found himself pinned to the bed with Jason on top of him. It wasn't the first time they had been in this position, the two teens fought all the time and the only downside was that Kasey was only five foot two inches… where Jason was a solid six foot wall of muscle as he grabbed Kasey's arms pinning them next to his head as he leaned over the bed. Dark gold eyes glared down at Kasey's bright green. "Kase! Pull your head out of your ass!" Jason snapped his voice going as dark as his eyesdark. as his eyes fluctuated from hazel to neon orange. "You are not ready for the field with this wound, and not when you are this close to unlocking your assassin potential… give it time, otherwise you'll be a sitting duck for hunters. You don't have to like it… but you have to deal with it." Jason growled.  
Kasey glared back up at Jason trying to jerk his arms free. "Fine…. But I want the Mother-Hen to know that I want back out in the field as soon as possible… Partner or no." he snapped.  
"I'll tell her, but you know she won't listen to requests… so saddle up for the next year because you're in charge of training." Jason stated standing up, letting go of Kasey's arms. "Stay here and rest… the Hunter had some unknown venom… we don't know if it's going to cause weird side effects… but they got most of it out of your system. But that doesn't mean that you can go flipping around in the gym…" With that the older teen had disappeared.

_Leave it to Jason to be the ass voice of reason I wasn't born with…_ Kasey thought as he started to get up grabbing his jeans off the floor. He didn't want to babysit a rookie. Jason hadn't complained because the two clicked easily and were able to sync up and get out in the field in a matter of weeks. But after watching some of the rookies, most teams didn't get out to the field until month eight. _So not gonna happen…_ he thought pulling his black t-shirt on. With the new team-mate that would mean that he would be reassigned a dorm room from a single to a double. Groaning at the thought Kasey slipped out of the room that he had been placed in for his medical treatment. Walking down the hall towards the dorm wing he passed his class mates as well as co-workers.

**~!~**

This facility was a city of its own. Kasey was one of the top one hundred students that had been allowed to attend the **Academy for the Light, a school for Assassins**. Their main mission was to protect human kind from Hunters. **Hunters** being demons from a variety of classes that have taken over a human body, by doing so they consume the human soul leaving an empty shell in which they can use however they see fit. As an assassin it is also their job to keep humans from summoning demons into their world so monitoring the use of black magic.

Assassins use **"Assassin potential"** to battle Hunters. The Assassin Potential is a base of power for an assassin, where it can give them the ability to use magic, mythical tools, or elemental control it varies from person to person. When those chosen to be Assassins reach the age of fourteen, their assassin potential unlocks and they spend a year training before going out into the field permanently. Those who have met the training but have not unlocked their potential (like Kasey) are subject to intel gathering and policing those who are caught using black magic.

Our story starts with Kasey's first look at what a Hunter really is, and the difference in power. What he doesn't know is that his soon to be partner has also come face to face with a hunter and lived to tell the tale. Will Kasey 'click' with the rookie like he had with Jason?  
Only the next chapter can bring light to that darkness….


End file.
